Location-based services, such as traffic reporting and concierge services, can provide personalized information when the location-based services know the approximate location of a mobile station (e.g., a mobile station in a vehicle). Previous solutions have depended on getting information from a base station as to the location of the mobile station. This is problematic because of the uneven deployment of such capabilities in base stations.
Some mobile stations allow application code to run in the mobile station, and it is expected that such capabilities will become more common and more powerful. A location-based application in a mobile station would likely be able to access call connection information including a Base Station Identifier of a base station in communication with the mobile station. Using a method described herein, the location-based application could determine approximate mobile station location. The invention avoids the use of expensive hardware, such as a GPS receiver, to determine mobile station location.